What would you guys say about this car? https://imgur.com/a/RaADFAo
more pics in link.
Start looking for a new car.
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Agree! You can repair anything if you spend enough money, but this one is past the point of a cost-effective fix!
Why? Is it something specific making the repairs so expensive?
Adrian , giving a repair cost from pictures is next to impossible . Besides what good would it do you ? The only opinions that matter are from the insurance adjuster and the repair shop if they find other problems during the repair . If it is totaled then that is all you need to know.
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It’s that I hear that you can buy cars back if the insurance totals it. I was wondering if that is a good idea with this one.
No, it has suffered extensive damage. If you have to ask the question, that means it’s probably a bad idea. Only someone very knowledgeable about car repairs should risk trying to outsmart the insurance adjuster.
No it is not a good idea. You will have towing - repair costs ( very expensive ) and the worst part will be getting insurance on a salvage title. Also if you try to sell or trade later you will be given such a low price because of the salvage title.
One word ( UNIBODY. }
If the unibody is bent, which appears likely in this case, it’s very difficult to get everything back to normal. If nothing else, it might not be as strong in a future crash.
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It would help to know the year of the car. What will total a $10000 car won;t necessarily total a $15000 one.
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Back in the 50’s to the 70’s you would not have to ask that question as it was easy to tell the different make’s & model’s unlike today’s car’s that all look alike the only way I can tell what make today’s car’s are is when I get close enough to be able read the make & model’
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Yes my son in law and I sometimes go to old car shows with some of my late 30s grandchildren and they are astounded when we can identify year make and model at 100 yards of 50s cars .
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Looks like a 2017 Ford Fusion but I am not really familiar with Fords.
I worked for a number of years in the finance department of an auto insurer. Our policy on when a vehicle was “totalled” was simple. It happened whenever the repair cost equalled or exceeded 70% of the actual cash value of the vehicle. It was very simple, we gave the insured a check for the actual cash value, they signed the title over to us, we sold the carcass to a salvage company, and told them where to pick up what was left of the vehicle. If you were to buy this car back from the salvage company and have it repaired, you will be battling strange mechanical and electrical Gremlins for years to come.
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I don’t see enough damage to halt the repair of the car. It won’t take long to fix either. I can’t estimate the cost of the body work but I see no damage to anything else.
I had a 61 Dodge Dart Phoenix that I bought back from State Farm, got a windshield put in, hung a new RF fender and got a used bumper grille and headlight assembly from a junkyard and had the car painted, all for less than the insurance paid me. That was a unibody car with a front subframe. I had gone to the accident scene with a crowbar and pulled the bumper out of the tire and mounted the full sized spare and driven the car home so I could tell it still tracked true and cross measured the wheels before I bought it back.
The damage looked pretty similar to this car but slightly worse. I didn’t get a salvage title, I don’t know if they did that in the 60s, but I wouldn’t have cared if it did because I used to drive a car until it was no longer usable.
If you are not equipped with the complex tools a very well set up body shop has then you should let the insurance company total it and move on. There is damage to the steering and suspension systems, and almost certainly to the structure of the unibody at the area where the right front door is hinged, up to the corner of the windshield. That’s a very important part of the structure of the unibody.
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It’s a ford fusion 2017.
Thanks everyone for the responses! I won’t mess with it then. Seems like everyone is saying it’s totaled or to expensive to invest it.
This car needs at least $10,000 of work done.Don’t bother with it.